


Your Knuckles Across My Cheek (First Meetings)

by Scotty1609



Category: DCU, DCU (Comics), Green Lantern - All Media Types, Justice League - All Media Types, The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Barry has issues, Bisexual Hal Jordan, Eventual Fluff, Everyone Has Issues, First Meetings, Fluff and Angst, Hal Has Issues, M/M, POV Barry Allen, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Queer Barry Allen, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-09-22
Packaged: 2019-07-15 11:47:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16062479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scotty1609/pseuds/Scotty1609
Summary: In a world where your soul-mark is where your soulmate first touches you, Barry Allen has a set of blistering purple knuckles right across his left cheekbone.A Hal/Barry first meeting fic.





	Your Knuckles Across My Cheek (First Meetings)

**Author's Note:**

> I know literally nothing about Hal/Barry beyond fanfiction so please forgive any mistakes. This is obviously not canon anyways, being a Soulmate AU, but it's more of just a Universe Alteration than anything else. Anyways.... Please enjoy!!  
> (Also I wrote this in like a half-hour at 2 AM soooo.... yea.)

Barry had been born with the most unfortunate soulmate-mark known to man. He swore it, up and down, and whenever someone tried to object he would merely point to his face in response. Most people had soulmate-marks on their hands and wrists, from high-fives or handshakes, and sometimes someone would have one on their elbow from a gentle grab. But not Barry. Oh, no, Bartholomew “Barry” Allen had the _worst_ soulmate-mark _ever_ : the imprint of four purple knuckles, right over his left cheekbone. His soulmate was going to _punch him_ , and _that_ was how they were going to meet. Then again, his soulmate _did_ have to live with their own mark, darkened or lightened skin over the back of their hand, but Barry reassured himself that his soulmate's guilt was easily justified- after all, _they_ were going to punch _him_!

So, Barry did everything he could to avoid physical violence. He didn't go to bars on populated nights, he _never_ attended hockey games, and he strayed away from any form of martial arts.

“C'mon, kiddo,” his dad had teased him once, “the sooner you join the karate team, the sooner you'll meet your soulmate!” Barry's mother had berated her husband, gently explaining to Barry that she was sure it was all going to be a big misunderstanding, like the dark grabby mark on her upper bicep had been. She had been sure that her soulmate was going to attack her, and yet, he instead pulled her out of the way of a car. Barry's mother always had a way of reassuring him, of making him believe that his soulmate could be _good_.

And then _it_ happened. That _thing_ killed his mother and framed his father, and nobody believed him when he said he had seen it. They very well nearly threw Barry into the psych ward for making his claims, that there was a yellow bolt of lightning that had killed his mother, but a kind cop took him aside and took his statement before saying, “We've still gotta take your dad in. Protocol, kid.”

_Protocol_ saw that his father was sentenced to near-life in prison. Barry popped from orphanage to foster home and back, all the while waiting for someone to literally _punch him in the face_. Sure, he got pushed over and kicked in the gut, and sure, he got rammed into walls at home, and of course, he was given noogies and swirlies in the school toilet, but never did anyone lay so much as a _finger_ on his face.

Not until after he got his powers.

Nearly twenty-four, Barry had gotten used to the stares and whispers when people on the streets saw his soulmate-mark. After all, it was a blistering purple _thing_ , right there on his cheekbone. But his friends didn't seem to care- save for threatening his future soulmate should the punch turn out to be any more hostile than a fluke- so Barry pushed it all to the back of his mind.

And then he was in the accident, the experiment gone wrong during a thunder storm. Struck by lightning, forced into a coma, awoken by his own powers- it was all very soap-opera-ish to Barry. Months went by of testing and training and pushing himself to his limits, and then Barry found Jay Garrick. And Jay took Barry under his wing and helped him learn to control his powers.

“It'll be easier once you find your soulmate,” Jay had told him. “They'll function as your _lightning rod_ , the thing that keeps you from delving too far into the Speed Force.”

Which had led to a conversation somewhere along the lines of 'what the _hell_ is a _Speed Force_?', a welcome distraction from the inevitable _'your soulmate might also be your enemy if you're gonna be a superhero'_ conversation.

Still, in the two years that he functioned as the Flash, Barry had yet to be socked in the face. Which may have been a good thing, but he was almost twenty-six. Most of his friends had found their soulmates already, and those that hadn't weren't in the market to do so. Not that he _wanted_ Mirror Master or Captain Cold to be his soulmate- _god_ did he _hope_ it wasn't Trickster- but he was growing a little impatient.

It was when the aliens came crashing down to Earth that _it_ happened.

Barry was punched in the face.

“ _HEY-”_ Barry shouted at first, “What the _hell_ was-”

And then he froze. Really, _truly_ froze, because the man in the glowing green tights that hovered in front of him looked just as shocked as he felt. So many things raced through Barry's mind: Who the hell was this guy? Why was he wearing glowing tights? Why was he floating in the air? And why the _fresh fuck_ did he just _deck_ Barry in the _face_?

“I... _think_ we're on the same team?” Glowing-Green-Guy said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Oh wow. Sorry. I wasn't sure for a second there, and it looked like you were about to attack _Batman_ and- Jesus, that's a _bitch_ of a soul-mark, isn't it?”

“ _Why_ did you think I was about to attack _Batman_?” Barry countered, annoyed. “We're on the same team!”

“ _Hey_! I can't be too sure, what with all of these super-powered nut-jobs running around. And the aliens! _Aliens_ , amiright? I mean, I know Superman's an alien and all, but _these guys_ ,” and the man threw a thumb over his shoulder, “are really getting on my nerves.”

Barry sighed heavily through his nose. His soulmate was a real riot, that was for sure. “Look. We're kinda in the middle of an alien invasion right now, so maybe we can talk about your poor problem-solving and reacting _later_ , okay?”

“ _Capisce_ ,” the man made an 'okay' symbol with his finger and thumb before flying off in a cloud of green. Barry couldn't help but grumble to himself, even as the warmth from his soul-mark stretched out to turn his lips up into a smile.

Hours passed, feeling like days, but the rag-tag team of heroes that had all appeared during the invasion finally won out- the Green Guy and Superman sent the last of the aliens hurtling into back into space, and Wonder Woman and Batman approached Barry intently. When Superman landed, he began preaching on about how they needed to stick together- “Like a _team_ ,” he stressed- and form a sort of league of their own, to battle any of the bad guys that may turn up.

“Or any of the _good guys_ who think _we're_ the bad-guys,” Barry grumbled a bit louder than he should have, earning a wince from his soulmate.

“Look, I'm _sorry_ , alright?” the guy told him. “Let's just start over, okay? I'm Green Lantern.”

Barry huffed a bit, but weakened under the charming sideways grin that Green Lantern was giving him. “Flash,” he replied, sticking his hand out for a handshake.

“Flash, huh? Whaddaya say we go get a beer, catch a game or something.”

And oh God, was this _really_ his soulmate? “Get a _beer_?” Barry asked incredulously. “After an _alien invasion_? You want to _get a beer_?”

“Uh... yea?”

“I'd rather eat ten burgers and then nap for five hours.”

“We can nap,” Green Lantern said, waggling his eyebrows suggestively, “Afterwards, that is.”

Barry fought the urge to face-palm. _How_ had he been stuck with _this_ guy?

“Hey, look,” Green Lantern lowered his voice. “I'm not really good at all this... _soulmate_ stuff. I grew up thinkin' my soulmate was gonna be some evil-doer who I'd have to punch out to save a hot chick or somethin'. And now I've just found out that _I'm_ the bad-guy in our soulmate-finding situation here.” Green Lantern chuckled weakly, a dark look flashing over his face as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I'm not the best at this, but I'm _trying_ , yea? And- for what it's worth- I'm sorry, alright? So can we just... I dunno... start over?”

Barry felt his heart grow warm as Green Lantern's hand rested on his shoulder. His cheeks reddened, and he shrugged a bit. “I guess... you _are_ a hero, after all. Not some evil miscreant who I have to lock behind bars, so there's that.”

Green Lantern's chest puffed out, his face morphing into a grin. “Yup! I'm a hero. Hero of the _galaxy_ to be precise. Sector 2814.”

Barry chuckled at that. “Is that so?”

“Oh yea. How about I tell you more? Over... burgers?”

Barry nodded. “Sure. Burgers sound good.”

“And maybe _afterwards_ we can see about that _nap_ , huh?”

“ _Don't_ make me regret this, Lantern.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Lemme know how you liked it!! Thanks for reading! <3


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